(DCNF)—Socialist New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani promises to respect police officers, but leaders of the “abolitionist” group that helped him seize power say they are “pigs” and “lazy cowards.”
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member will control one of the nation’s largest police forces upon taking office Jan. 1. Mamdani previously advocated for dismantling the NYPD as a state assemblyman, a stance aligned with the DSA’s platform.
Mamdani told the press while campaigning that his public safety agenda is more moderate than the DSA’s, despite winning the mayoral election with help from thousands of DSA staffers and volunteers.
Mamdani will inherit a myriad of public safety problems as mayor, including Rikers Island’s uncertain future, the New York Police Department (NYPD) bleeding officers by the hundreds and a COVID-19 pandemic-era crime spike that has not waned.
Misdemeanors, “major” felonies and non-major felonies in New York City have been more frequent in every year since 2020, according to NYPD data. The city’s seven major felonies combined — murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny of motor vehicle — hit a 17-year high of 126,786 in 2023 and decreased by just 2.2% in 2024.
If the DSA has its way, Mamdani will abolish the justice system as we know it.
“For all of the working class to achieve collective liberation we must constrain, diminish, and abolish the carceral forces of the state — from prisons and police themselves, to their manifestations in all forms throughout society,” the DSA’s website says.
The DSA demands America “end the criminalization of working-class survival,” “invest in community self-governance and care, not cops” and provide “freedom for all incarcerated people.”
Members of the DSA’s National Political Committee have for years used social media to excoriate cops, calling them “pigs” and “lazy cowards” and accusing them of “literally killing us.”
“In 1886, the pigs killed 4 workers in Haymarket Square and 4 more later and this day should always remind us that every basic right we have was won with blood,” Committee Co-Chair Megan Romer declared in May 2024, railing against the police killing of pro-labor rights protesters during the Haymarket Square riot in Chicago, Illinois. “This doesn’t stop the fascists from spilling more; they won’t stop until we win (and we will).”
Mamdani did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. The DSA’s New York City chapter did not respond to a request for comment.
The DSA’s willingness to compromise with Mamdani remains to be seen. The group passed a resolution sometime before the election committing to “serve as an effective outside ally to a potential Zohran Mamdani administration,” though some wanted to nail down stricter expectations for him, Politico reported.
“If we succeed in electing Zohran Mamdani, our priority will not be policing the mayor’s lapses and demanding accountability — orientations the left has adopted in moments of decline and marginality,” said a drafted clause of the resolution that was later removed, according to Politico.
The mayor-elect told reporters in August that he does not support measures such as eliminating misdemeanor offenses and that his “platform is not the same as national DSA,” The New York Times reported. He aims to create a new $1.1 billion “Department of Community Safety” that his campaign says will offset police officers’ burdens by letting some emergencies be handled by counselors, medical professionals and “violence interrupters.”
Mamdani got the idea for the department from his new chief of staff, a close DSA ally, City & State reported.
Even Mamdani’s stated plans should concern those who favor more traditional law enforcement systems, according to Charles Lehman, who studies public safety for the conservative Manhattan Institute.
“At this point, my biggest concern is his commitment to not try to increase the sworn force size,” Lehman told the DCNF. “Given that the NYPD is losing 300 cops per month, that will inevitably lead to further attrition, which will make the city less safe,” he added, citing an August report from amNewYork.
“I’m also pretty concerned about how he will handle the pending closure of Rikers, due by law in August of 2027,” Lehman said. “The borough-based jails won’t be ready by then — what’s his plan? Will he just let the city have no jails?”
The city’s prison system is slated for a nearly 80% reduction in holding capacity with Rikers gone, bringing the DSA’s dream closer to reality, Lehman has noted in his research.
Mamdani stressed on the campaign trail that he no longer supports defunding the NYPD. He also apologized to NYPD officers during an October Fox News interview for disparaging police earlier in his career, adding he is committed to “representing the men and women of the NYPD.”
“I apologize because of the fact that I’m looking to work with these officers, and I know that these officers, these men and women who serve in the NYPD, they put their lives on the line every single day,” Mamdani said.
Mamdani is still a long way from convincing some that his far-left vision will help police.
“Even if he has given up on his past radical plans — and I’m skeptical — there’s lots of things he’s promised to do that will undoubtedly impact the city for the worse,” Lehman told the DCNF.
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